A bridge in a graph is an edge whose removal disconnects the graph and increases the number of connected components. We calculate the fraction of bridges in a wide range of real-world networks and their randomized counterparts. We find that real networks typically have more bridges than their completely randomized counterparts, but very similar fraction of bridges as their degree-preserving randomizations. We define a new edge centrality measure, called bridgeness, to quantify the importance of a bridge in damaging a network. We find that certain real networks have very large average and variance of bridgeness compared to their degree-preserving randomizations and other real networks. Finally, we offer an analytical framework to calculate the bridge fraction , the average and variance of bridgeness for uncorrelated random networks with arbitrary degree distributions.

18 pages, 10 figures